Andoni Iraola has suggested he is not satisfied with how his Liverpool side have been officiated this season, sharing a recent exchange he had with a referee and pointing to a big 'imbalance' in Premier League refereeing treatment

Andoni Iraola has hinted at his dissatisfaction with the officiating his Liverpool side have experienced this season.

The Reds have given away more fouls than any other Premier League team (128) during the current campaign, and picked up the joint-third-highest number of yellow cards (21). By contrast, they have been fouled the fourth-fewest times in the English top flight (88).

Standing up for his players, Iraola maintained they are an honest group while expressing his view that there is an 'imbalance' in how referees treat his side, citing a recent conversation he had with a match official to illustrate his point.

"I don't want to talk too much about referees," he said. "I think we are quite an honest group, sometimes too honest, sometimes.

"And even the other day after the game, I think the referee congratulated us. I don't know if I liked it a lot or not, but he said our behavior had been very good, overall, from the players, from the staff.

"I think it has to be genuine, no? You cannot fake things. When we complain it has to be genuine complaints because I think it's a penalty, it's a yellow card, it's whatever."

"I feel we are willing obviously, we are a team that wants to press, wants to be intense. But I think the balance, there is a big difference, yes."

Meanwhile, Iraola disclosed that Liverpool have yet to receive clarification from Pro Ref regarding why they were denied a penalty in their loss to Arsenal for a shirt pull on Alexander Isak.

Nevertheless, he pointed out that the panel's findings from last week's matches are not yet expected.

"No, we haven't received an explanation, but this is how it works, no?" he said. "They've just served the conclusion of the panel from the previous game week, I think it's against Brighton, but nothing happened in our game.

"And we will have to wait, I think it's 10 days, before they give whatever they think, but no, no news, no."